Silicon Valley Supports Comcast Merger

Forbes today runs support for the Comcast-Time Warner merger from Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a trade organization that represents more than 390 Silicon Valley employers, whose members include Apple, Google, and Goldman Sachs.

Some argue the deal will lessen competition, as such transactions often do. But here’s the rub. Because Comcast and TWC operate in different communities, not a single consumer will see any reduction in competition for Internet, cable TV or telephone service. Not one. The deal will merely exchange one provider for another – an exchange that will bring faster Internet speeds, more programming choice and more programs like Comcast’s Internet Essentials initiative, which has brought low-cost broadband to over a million underprivileged Americans.

In the final analysis, there seems to be nothing but upside in this deal. Customers will see no reduction in competition while gaining faster Internet speeds and more diverse programming choices. And US leadership in the broadband Internet will be advanced.

Support for the proposed merger has been pretty liminted, but some observers believe that Comcast’s deep pockets — it is a major political contributor — will carry the day.

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